Trump Loses Attempt to Prevent Union at Vegas Hotel

Donald Trump has a long history of union busting, so it’s no surprise that he tried to prevent hundreds of workers at his hotel/casino in Vegas from joining a union. But the National Labor Relations board ruled against him and certified the union that the workers voted for join last year.

Overruling objections filed by Donald Trump’s corporation, the National Labor Relations Board officially certified a union for more than 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel just off the Las Vegas strip. The workers, who voted to unionize last December, are now demanding the hotel’s management sit down with them to negotiate a contract immediately. Yet management has indicated they will instead appeal the Labor Board’s decision to the federal agency in Washington.

Despite the new ruling in their favor, the workers may have to keep waiting. The hotel’s decision to appeal is in keeping with their longstanding efforts to prevent their employees from organizing. Workers told ThinkProgress they were subjected to intimidation by their supervisors and the “union avoidance” consulting firm they hired.

“They pressured us a lot [to vote no],” housekeeper Marisela Olvera told ThinkProgress. “They told us the union only wants our money, that if we supported the union we’d lose our jobs, that the company would put our names on a blacklist and no other hotels in Las Vegas would hire us. They told us to think of what our children would do if we were out of work. Everyone was very stressed. People were afraid. But bendito sea Diós, we still won, even with all that pressure.”

This is a clear violation of the National Labor Relations Act, which forbids corporations from taking any action to “interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees” to prevent them from forming a union. The NLRB should punish Trump’s company for that. And let’s not forget that in one of the early Republican presidential debates, Trump actually said that wages in this country are too high.